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With Halloween weekend upon us, I wanted to make a list of some of my favourite horror movies for those who aren’t sure what to watch this weekend. (Though I imagine many, me included, will be binge watching the second season of Stranger Things on Netflix!)

These are ten of my favourite horror/ghost/zombie movies.

(Btw, while I am posting the trailers to give you a sneak peek at anything that seems interesting, I personally tend to never watch the whole trailer since some of them feel like they give away too much. But it’s up to you what you want to do.)

The Cabin in the Woods

A slightly different take on a horror movie, pointing out some of the cliches, but in a very good way. It’s about a group of friends who go to a cabin for the weekend, which seems like a typical horror movie start – except it’s not quite like other horror movies.
Stars Chris Hemsworth (which is never a bad thing), and Jesse Williams from Grey’s Anatomy.

Orphan

A couple adopt a 9-year old girl, but she may not be quite as sweet and innocent as she seems. Is there anything creepier than children in horror movies?

The Awakening

I really enjoyed this movie. It takes place after the second world war, and is about a woman who exposes hoaxes and charlatans. She’s invited to a boarding school which has been haunted for some time. Expecting to quickly debunk the ghost stories, she finds that maybe there’s more to the story than she initially thought.

Tucker and Dale VS Evil

This is a Comedy/Horror, and one of my favourites. It’s about Tucker and Dale, two hillbillies who go up against a group of college kids. Which you’d think is pretty standard for a horror movie, except Tucker and Dale are good guys, just mistakenly thought of as bad by the college kids – leading to a lot of hilariousness.
Stars a favourite of mine; Alan Tudyk. It’s currently on Netflix UK, not sure about other countries.

The Descent

A group of friends go cave exploring, but end up realizing that they may not be alone in the caves.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

No Halloween movie list is complete without this classic. I think I will go listen to the soundtrack again now.

The Orphanage

A really good movie about a woman who moves into a former orphanage with her son, then odd things start happening. Definitely gave me the creeps when I was watching it.

Shaun of the Dead

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost star in this epic Comedy/Horror movie in which they have to deal with most of the world having become zombies. That is, once they figure it out. They’re a bit slow on the uptake.

The Others

I can’t imagine that anyone hasn’t seen this great ghost movie, starring Nicole Kidman as a mother who lives with her two photosensitive children. Odd things are happening in the house, and she starts to suspect that they are not alone.

28 Days Later

One of my favourite zombie movies. Maybe because it’s a little bit different. Cillian Murphy Jim wakes up in the hospital after a coma, only to find that he’s alone. 28 days earlier an incurable virus spread across the UK and he must now find a way to survive.

It’s Monday! Let’s “celebrate” with a YouTube clip! This one is from Screen Junkies, where they’ve had artists make new themes for TV shows. The Michael Bolton one at the end is definitely my favourite. If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing (honestly, the first few aren’t nearly as good), skip to 3:12 for the Bolton bit.

I just saw the trailer for Marvel’s new TV-series Inhumans, and it’s looking pretty interesting. Admittedly, I’m fairly new to these characters, so I’m coming at it with fresh eyes. My first thought when watching the trailer was to wonder if Iwan Rheon always plays a bad guy. (Then again, I’ve only seen him in GoT…)

I watched Moana for the first time a couple of months ago, and I absolutely loved it. Most of the songs stuck with me, but this one possibly the most. Every time I say “you’re welcome” to someone, I tend to hum the song. I can’t help myself, it’s so catchy!

When I went home for Easter I heard my three year old niece singing it, which was adorable. She doesn’t know English, so she was just making noises that sounded similar to the words. Cutest ever.

Without further ado; You’re Welcome from the Moana movie, sung by Dwayne Johnson.

I had meant to post this ages ago, when I actually saw the movie, but I never got around to it, because I’m a terrible person. Or a forgetful person. One of those things.

It’s a tale as old as time… and you know what, let’s not do this. I think we all know how the story goes. If you’re anything like me, you saw the original Disney movie about a trillion times anyway and probably know it by heart.

There’s definitely a level of nostalgia that goes into watching this movie, and Disney counts on it, giving us a nearly frame by frame remake. There are changes though, and some (most?) are for the better. Some new songs have been added, and Belle is a little less victim and a little more feisty. She’s the inventor rather than her father, which is one of the reasons the villagers find her odd. That and the fact that she can read, which is apparently a terrible, terrible thing. Even worse when she tries to teach one of the children (a girl! oh noes! how dare she?!) to read.

Some of the things that might have made us go ‘huh?’ in the original movie have been addressed, some of which makes sense now and some of which still kind of don’t. As well as a few new bits that may or may not make sense.

I could go into detail about all these things, but I won’t bore you. (An example is how the villagers could have forgotten that there’s a huge castle with a prince right next door, and some timing in regards to the Beast’s age. If you pay attention in the original and do the maths he was basically 11 when the curse happened. How bad can an 11 year old be for you to curse him like that? I’m kidding, 11 year olds can be terrible, but I mean – ground them or something, don’t turn them into a beast!)

Let’s talk about the things that I really care about when it comes to this movie; the characters and romance!

The Beast/Prince

They did an amazing job creating the Beast in CGI! Dan Stevens truly shine and is allowed enough of his features through the CGI to properly convey all of the feelings he needs to. Not only that, but he can sing. I will be honest, I had no idea that Dan Stevens could sing.

In fact, they did such a good job on the Beast (those pecs… I mean, the scene where his shirt is open created some very confusing feelings for me) that I was disappointed when he turned into the Prince. Which was very badly done, because Dan Stevens is a handsome man. What’s up with the temple curls?! And did he have to be given the ugliest suit of everyone in the whole movie?

Belle

I liked Hermione Granger Emma Watson as Belle, though I’m not sure that someone else couldn’t have done a better job. I feel terrible for saying it, but while she was good, and I’m sure she put a lot of effort into learning to sing, she’s not actually a singer – and it’s noticeable. In fairness, I didn’t notice it as much when I was watching the movie – but I listened to the soundtrack afterwards, and when you don’t have the movie to dazzle you, you notice that her voice doesn’t quite measure up to some of the others.

Also, I know she’s like 27 years old now or something, but I struggle to see her as older than she was in early Harry Potter movies. This is my problem though and may not be someone else. It did however make me think that her first reaction to the Beast turning into Dan Stevens the Prince would be “oh wow… eh… you’re older than I thought”.

Gaston

After the Beast, Gaston was definitely my second favourite character in this version of the movie. Luke Evans does such an amazing job and is so charismatic that it’s difficult to hate Gaston as much as you did in the original. I wonder if they made him extra villainous to make up for the fact that Luke Evans is so amazing that people might end up rooting for him instead of the Beast if he doesn’t show how properly evil he really is?

If for no other reason, watch the movie for Luke Evans.

LeFou

Josh Gad does a great job of making LeFou more than just the funny sidekick that he was in the original. He gets his own character arc and Gad portrays this perfectly, while still being funny and endearing.

Everyone else

I don’t have many thoughts about the others. They were all fine. I’m not sure about Ewan McGregor with a French accent… Also, Emma Thompson’s accent as Mrs. Potts threw me a bit. I love Kevin Cline in pretty much everything he does. Didn’t realise Stanley Tucci was in the movie until the very end!

The Romance

As in the original, the timeline is somewhat compressed (and that’s with the live action movie being longer than the original already), so the romance is still happening quite quickly. I always wish we’d have a little bit more time with Beauty and the Beast to see their relationship develop. It definitely feels a little bit rushed, but it is given a little bit more time than in the original, which at least helps.

It might be because I’m a romance writer and reader, but I could probably have spent another half hour getting into their budding relationship. But that’s what all the books inspired by the Beauty & the Beast story are for I guess.

All in all, I really loved the movie and would recommend anyone who liked the original to see it. There are a few things that doesn’t necessarily make sense (but you’d find that in nearly any movie if you look hard enough), but I’ll forgive it because I’ve always had a soft spot for Beauty & the Beast.

Ps. This Beauty & the Beast clip from James Corden is absolutely amazing. And it has Dan Stevens, Luke Evans and Josh Gad in it!

Tonight I went to the cinema to see the new JK Rowling movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

It’s not really a Harry Potter prequel or sequel per se, but it does take place in the Harry Potter universe. To be exact, about 70 years before the first Harry Potter book. I’m a big HP fan, so I admittedly am somewhat biased when it comes to this movie. If you come into this movie with no knowledge of the HP universe, you can still enjoy it as a good movie – but I think that you definitely get a lot more out of the movie if you do know the universe that you’re stepping into a bit. There are some little nods to the original books, but the story can hold up quite well on its own.

The story is about Newt Scamander, who you might remember from the original books as the author of the book “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them“, that Harry and his class mates study in school. I find it quite amazing how JK Rowling has taken a tiny reference in the original books, and made a whole new series out of it.

Newt, a British wizard, is having a brief stop in New York with his case full of magical creatures. It would have been a brief and uneventful visit, had the case not gotten lost and some of the creatures escaped. We get to see Newt trying to get his beasts back, while trying to avoid getting into trouble with the Magical Congress (American version of Ministry of Magic), and things quite quickly get out of hand.

There’s a lot more to the story than I originally thought, and I really enjoyed delving deeper into the wizard world. It’s also interesting seeing the differences between the British/European wizard world and the American one. The cinematography is beautiful, and the beasts themselves a combination of adorable, imaginative and impressive.

Eddie Redmayne is a brilliant Newt Scamander, and I must say that I really enjoyed Colin Farrell as Graves. Dan Fogler deserves a mention as well, as the “no-maj” (American name for a “muggle”) that ends up entangled in Newt’s mess, and allows us to see things from his eyes in a world that he didn’t know existed.

I don’t want to say too much about the movie, because I don’t want to risk spoiling it. There are a few things about it that bothered me, but because they are mainly in regards to plot twists and things that happen later in the movie, I won’t get into them here.

All in all, I think it’s a film that’s definitely worth seeing, especially if you enjoy the world of Harry Potter.

You’ve probably already come across this, but I’m not a big Youtube viewer so I miss most things until a friend or brother show it to me. I found this one quite funny, maybe because I also think that “Shake It Off” is a very catchy song. Seeing the real actors towards the end is possibly the best part. That and “fake” Dean doing the Eye of the Tiger moves.